Minor raped in grocery shop in Bengal's Suri, locals protest

Kolkata, Jan 22 Tension erupted in Suri, the district headquarters of Birbhum in West Bengal, on Wednesday, over the alleged rape of a minor girl within a locked grocery shop by the owner.

The accused grocery shop owner Pradip Kirtaniya is absconding. The police have detained the elder brother of the accused for questioning.

It is learnt that a woman residing opposite the grocery shop in Hatjon, a retail market cum residential area in Suri, noticed the minor girl coming to the shop to purchase something on Tuesday night and also saw the accused owner taking her inside the shop. After the minor girl did not come out of the shop which was locked from inside, the eyewitness woman immediately informed the family members of the victim.

The family members, along with the local people, reached the shop and banged the door. But, according to district police insiders, the accused shop owner, after forcing the victim through the back-entry of the shop, escaped from the locality.

The victim came back home soon after and narrated her ordeal. The police were immediately informed and the cops took her for medical examination on Tuesday night only.

From Wednesday morning, the local people assembled in front of the grocery shops and some agitated youth also vandalised a portion of the shop.

As the cops from the local police station reached the spot, the local people started agitating in front of them. Some local youths also blocked the roads by burning tyres. Senior police officials were seen trying to convince the agitated crowd and requesting them not to take the law into their own hands.

A huge police contingent has already been deployed there to keep the situation under control.

West Bengal has been in the negative headlines nationally for the last few months over a series of reports of rape and rape-murder cases. The most talked about report in the matter was the ghastly rape and murder of a woman doctor at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August 2024. The sole convict in the case and a civic volunteer was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in Kolkata on January 20.

Source: IANS